World War IV
by Harry Potter Fan 1994
Summary: After the Enterprise crew appear just outside of Alliance territory, Malcolm Reynolds and Jim Kirk team up to find out why no one in the 26th century has ever heard of Starfleet. Or aliens, for that matter.
1. Chapter 1

Dedicated to GreenAwesomeness :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Firefly or Star Trek.

* * *

When Spock was beamed back to the Enterprise, Kirk noticed he seemed a little tense. Granted, a few days before, Kirk had been convinced his Spock-reading skills had developed to the point where they could discuss situations by exchanging glances, but that had ended with Spock suggesting Bones check out Kirk's newly developed tic. Still, it looked like the Vulcan's jaw was actually clenched. Kirk watched him with an eyebrow raised for a few seconds before asking to talk to him in private.

"I take it your trip to New Vulcan wasn't the dream vacation you were hoping for."

"It was uneventful, for the most part, yes."

If there was one thing Spock couldn't do, it was hide something he knew he shouldn't.

"Do I need to pull rank, or are you going to tell me what you did?"

"Captain, I believe that for your protection it would be prudent-"

"Tell me. That's an order."

He paused, probably relieved somewhere in that suppressed human half of his mind. "During the last few hours of my stay, I visited with the New Vulcan Science Academy. I opted to tour the facility alone, and while it is approaching what it once was, there is one aspect that...unsettles me."

"What's that?"

"Their work with decalithium has begun to produce red matter."

Kirk now understood why Spock's tension was actually visible.

"The older one of you-Spock Senior-shouldn't he have told them not to?"

"I'm convinced it was meant to remain a secret."

"So how'd you find it? You were sneaking around?"

"Touring the facility. Alone."

"Whatever. It's not that big of a deal. We'll ask them to stop producing it and destroy the what they have. If they don't cooperate, we-"

"I have it."

There was a pause while Kirk wondered what that meant. Then it hit him. "You...you _stole_ it?"

"Due to the secretive nature of the project, I felt that the developers may have been planning to use it and because I couldn't determine when that would be, the logical thing to do-"

"They'll be furious! Well, not-you know what I-where is it?"

Spock held out a closed fist.

"No way."

"They had only managed to create a small amount."

"You're insane. It could've exploded mid-transport! You could be dying from decalithium poisoning right now! Hell, _I _could be dying from decalithium poisoning right now!"

"I would have considered those risks had they been properties of this particular substance."

"Don't get sassy with me, Spock. Put it...somewhere. Safe. Not here. And what are you planning on doing with it?"

"The next time we were in the vicinity of a supernova, I would have asked Mr. Scott to launch this into its core. Meanwhile, taking this will buy time for the Federation to investigate the reasoning behind developing red matter-especially when Vulcan cannot afford to be lost again."

The Captain sighed. "I understand why you did this, Spock, but we have to let the high council know what's going on."

"This could be their doing. As the situation currently stands, we would be better off allowing the Federation to handle the decalithium lab."

The argument lasted for the better part of an hour, but when it came to arguments, Spock tended to excel.

* * *

"Captain, the supernova of BEL-X5 is within range," Sulu announced.

"Scotty, you got that?"

Montgomery Scott's voice buzzed back at him from the engine room. "Ready, Captain, but are you sure about this?"

"Haven't got much of a choice, Scotty."

Spock remained silent. The crew pitied his predicament, but none were particularly skilled in comforting a Vulcan. At least they had removed the risk of destroying New Vulcan, or any other world, for the time being. The Federation had been alerted, but now that the knowledge was available there was no telling who would use it. Uhura rested her hand on his arm. "It's okay. We're getting rid of it." Spock just nodded.

"Deploying the pod now. Thirty seconds before we're close enough to the reaction to get sucked into the black hole."

"That's thirty more seconds than we need. Deploy."

The crew waited for the all clear. Instead, "Um, Captain?"

"No. No way this is going wrong. What is it?"

Chekov whirled around in his chair. "Vee are moving too fast. Ze distance calculations ver based on ze ship of ze other Spock. Ze mass of ze Enterprise is much greater."

"Sulu, get us out of-"

* * *

"Zoe and Jayne are on their way back," Mal informed River. "No rush. They said it was a clean job, but I still want Serenity ready to go."

River did not answer. Her blank stare and cocked head reminded Mal of the days before her sanity had been restored. "No. Something's wrong."

He knew he shouldn't have trusted a nutjob with a spaceship.

"River, we ain't got time for you to lose it again."

"I'm not losing it, Mal. Something's wrong with the air."

Why did this always happen to him? "With the air."

"Yes."

"Captain, we need the cargo bay doors open. There's some kinda storm happenin' out here." Zoe had appeared on the video transmitter. In the background, Jayne was aiming both of his guns at the sky and cursing colorfully. "Ain't like no storm I ever seen before."

Figures. Mal let Kaylee know to let them in. "Guess you were right, River. Anything else you got about this bad air?"

"We shouldn't fly until it's over."

"Genius. Call Zoe to the bridge. You two figure out how much time we got to wait out that storm." He turned walked out.

"I want to see the storm, too," River called after him.

Mal passed Zoe on the way down. "I wouldn't go out there, Captain. Looks a mite dangerous."

"We've done a lot of dangerous things before, Zoe."

"Yeah, but you can't shoot at this one. Jayne tried. Quite a few times."

"Still gonna check it out. Gotta see if it's plannin' on clearin' up anytime soon."

The rest of the crew was already there, squinting and trying to look at it from different angles. "That's sure some angry lightnin'," observed Kaylee. "Looks kinda red." So did the rest of the storm. The rust-clouds were extremely localized-the entire clump could have been seen from a porthole window. Lightning struck at least once every second, but none of the jolts of electricity were long enough to reach the ground. They merely snaked a little ways out of the clouds and then disappeared. It truly was like nothing they had ever seen. Too bad for them.

"Show's over. Everyone get inside. Don't need no locals trackin' Jayne and Zoe back to-"

That's when the gigantic spaceship appeared out of the clouds and came hurtling at them.


	2. Chapter 2

Still dedicated to GreenAwesomeness. Unfortunately, she seems to be missing in action. If anyone sees her, let her know her story's up...?

Disclaimer: Still don't own Firefly and/or Star Trek 2009.

* * *

The crew of Serenity had watched, open-mouthed, as the unknown ship tried in vain to right itself before plowing into the ground. Granted, it was so large the impact couldn't have damaged too much on the upper levels, but anything that had made contact with the surface of Haven had basically disintegrated. As the cloud of dust settled, Mal examined the behemoth. Nothing seemed to be moving or making a sound.

"Think there was anyone on that wreck when it zapped outta nowhere?" Jayne asked, still in awe.

"Guess we should find out. I want all of you armed, 'cept Kaylee. You and Inara stay back on Serenity and protect the loot. Everyone else, we search that ship for survivors. If there ain't anybody on board, strip anything that looks even a mite valuable. Big, fancy ship like that, I expect everyone back with an armload," instructed Mal.

"Just be careful, Captain," Kaylee warned, "Ain't like no ship this 'verse ever saw."

On that grim note, the crew took up as many weapons as they could carry-Jayne, even more than that. The walk across the desert grew tenser with every step, as their destination still looked enormous and uninhabited, like some sort of mobile ghost town. The question at the forefront of everyone's thoughts still remained unanswered: where had it come from?

"Captain, those windows up there look panoramic. Pilot's seat," Zoe said.

"How do we get up there? It's probably a maze inside," asked Simon.

"We better figure it out. High up, minimal damage to the windows, guaranteed occupancy-best place to find survivors."

Upon reaching the base of the ship, it took little time for the team to find a newly-formed opening through which to enter. Dodging the broken electrical cables and picking through the debris, the crew made their way to a relatively intact hallway when they heard murmurs.

"Sounds like someone's still on board. And breathing."

Much more quietly, Mal and his crew followed the voices until they were clear.

"-Genius who didn't take mass into account?"

"Didn't occur to us, Captain! The mass of the black hole should have been so much greater that the difference would have been insignificant. But since the amount of red matter was so small, the difference made more of a...difference."

"We could've all been killed, Scotty!"

"Our engines just aren't capable of that kind of jump. Went into immediate shutdown for safety. There was no way I could have gotten them going in time to stop that landing."

"Well, now we don't know where the hell we are, and more importantly, _when _the hell we are."

"Time travel," River whispered. "That explains everything."

The rest of them sighed collectively. Mal signaled for them to move on in and tapped on the wall to announce his existence before stepping through the doorway to an enormous engine room. Occupying the room were about a hundred crew members in various colors of the same shirt. All of them looked ready to shoot Mal through the skull out of pure surprise.

"Hello there. Name's Malcolm Reynolds. I captain a fine vessel just over the way and I happened to notice your pretty bumpy landing, just wondering if you needed any help."

For a while everyone was speechless. Then one man who, judging by his voice, had taken part in the previous argument, spoke up. "I'm Captain Jim Kirk. Please do me the favor of not pretending I'm an idiot. For trespassing on and conspiring to rob the USS Enterprise, Federation law states that you are officially under arrest."

Mal arched an eyebrow. "What federation? You mean the Alliance?"

Captain Kirk threw a dirty look at one of his crew members. "Okay, Captain Reynolds. Tell us what year this is, and we won't take you and your poorly hidden tag team prisoner...yet."

Mal motioned for his five crew members to show themselves. They lined up behind him. "Twenty-five seventeen, since you asked nicely. You from the future? Somebody invented time traveling?"

"From the past," a new person approached them, but his appearance was more than a little unsettling. "We are from the year 2260."

"What's wrong with his ears?" Jayne blurted.

The man leveled his gaze. "I am a Vulcan." As if that explained everything.

"Sorry, Avulcan, but that don't tell us much," said Mal.

'Avulcan' looked at Captain Kirk. "It appears that Vulcans and humans lose contact some time in the next two hundred and fifty years."

"Vulcans? Plural? There are more of you?" demanded Zoe.

River covered her ears. "Everyone stop. Get on the same page. So much confusion."

"Alright. A small portion of my crew will meet with this part of your crew. We'll figure out where to go from here. In the meantime, tell the rest of your people this ship isn't to be stolen from. Sound okay?" asked Kirk.

"Well, since there are only two others, I don't think they'd try anything against your...planet."

"Two others?" asked the other argument participant with an accent not unlike Badger's. He smirked. "What do you captain, an escape pod?"

* * *

"Kaylee? We're gonna need you on this ship. No hostiles, just a real annoying engineer named Scotty."

"Copy that, Captain." Kaylee shrugged at Inara. "Can you hold on your own?"

"Of course,_ mei mei_. No one out here to bother me. But you should take a gun with you."

"Ain't never shot one, don't think I ever will."

Inara handed her a pistol anyway. "At least scare anybody who gets in your way. Be careful."

Her walk over to the other spaceship was uneventful-a good thing, too, because she was far too distracted by the sleek and foreign design to notice whether anyone suspicious was approaching her. Even broken, the ship was beautiful. Nothing compared to her dear Serenity, of course, but still beautiful.

Zoe was waiting to show her where to go. She filled her in on the way. "They're accidental time travelers. Don't ask. A couple severely injured by the landing-Simon and the resident medic are on that. You're needed to help repair the ship. They need to get on their way-apparently there's a crisis back in their time that they need to help with. Only problem is, they don't have the means to time travel anymore. Oh, and they've got a few aliens on board."

Kaylee stopped in her tracks. "Aliens?"

"Yep. You should meet Mr. Spock. Simon's gonna look a hell of a lot more romantic after that."

Kaylee grinned uncomfortably. Despite trying to wrap her mind around aliens, she felt the familiar twinge of discomfort whenever Zoe talked about relationships. "But wait...you said they gotta go back. How come they got aliens in the past and we ain't got them now?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out."

* * *

"What is this, a revolver?" Kirk was examining one of Jayne's guns, oblivious to the vein that was pulsing in the big man's temple. "Don't they have better stuff in the future? This is primitive. Like we went back in time two hundred and fifty years instead."

"Captain," advised Dr. Wallace, "It clearly accomplishes its purpose. Please try to refrain from insulting our guest's prized possessions." She handed the revolver back to Jayne. "She's very well taken care of."

Jayne smirked. "Know your guns, huh? I like a lady with a little blood on her hands."

Carol suddenly got a lot less friendly. "On second thought, Captain..."

Kirk rolled his eyes. "If only you could read people like you read weapons. Mr. Cobb, the lady would like to tell you that your advances would be a lot more impressive if you had a decent gun. Like this one." Kirk pulled his out of his holster and pointed it at Jayne. "Make another move on my-uh, Dr. Wallace and I'll castrate you with this. I haven't forgotten you guys came on board to rob the place. I don't owe you any favors."

Jayne held up his hands. "Keep that laser thing away from me. Ain't that interested in Limpy here anyways."

"Why, you-" Kirk growled, but Carol held him back and Mal had finally noticed the scuffle.

"Well! Don't want y'all getting too acquainted with my gunman here. He ain't real pleasant company. My engineer's here, so your irritatin' little _go se _can tell her how to get started on repairs. As for Jayne-"

"Don't worry about me, Mal," Jayne replied slowly. The most beautiful woman he'd ever seen had just walked through the doorway to their impromptu conference room. "I got something to do."

"Captain," called Uhura. "I have the final damage report. We've suffered one major-"

"I been sufferin' since you walked in the door."

Everyone in the room turned to glare at him. Mal sighed. "Jayne, why don't you go see if Kaylee and Scotty need help down in the engine room?"

"Captain-"

"Now."

With Jayne gone, the agenda moved along much faster. "The damage isn't as extensive as I thought. We should be underway within a week if we have everyone down there helping. Excepting your crew, of course, Captain Reynolds. Not only do I not expect that kind of hospitality, I can't afford to have my spare parts stolen."

"You ever gonna let that go?"

"Captain, the fact remains that even with the Enterprise intact, we have no way of returning to our time," Spock pointed out.

"Yeah. I've been thinking about that." Kirk pulled up a holographic map centering on their location. "Just because humans aren't in contact with the rest of the universe doesn't mean the rest of the universe isn't there."

"You want to find Vulcan. Under the assumption that they will have some method of returning us to the past."

"It's the only chance we've got."

"Okay," Mal interjected. "This is crazy talk. If there were aliens out there, we'd know about it. Hell, we came to an entire other galaxy. How could we have missed little pointy-eared men flying around?"

All of them were silent for a while. The Enterprise crew didn't have any answers. The Serenity crew were afraid of theirs.

River voiced what her two superiors were thinking. "The Alliance isn't going to be happy to see us. Especially when we start asking for an explanation."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Firefly or Star Trek.

* * *

After Wash's death, Zoe had been so alone. Her military mentality kept her going no matter what the tragedy, but at night she'd look over at the empty spot next to her on the bed and let the tears flow. The minute she'd found out she was pregnant, though, it had felt as though a little sunshine had poked through the cloud above her head. Their little girl looked more like her than him, but Zoe still saw him in the way she laughed.

On her first birthday, Zoe had given her daughter the smallest gun she could find-unloaded, of course. She'd taught her how to hold it and the baby had figured out the safety all by herself. "Our little girl's going to be a sharpshooter, Wash. I can feel it," Zoe had told the imaginary man beside her. Then she had noticed Jayne, who'd just walked onto the bridge, look at her with alarm. She'd made a mental note not to talk to Wash out loud. But she made no promises about guns.

It had actually inspired Jayne's nickname for her daughter, which Mal had also begun using: "gun-totin'-little-animal's-gonna-kill-us-all." She didn't have a real name, yet. Zoe'd never determined what Wash would have wanted, despite thinking over it for weeks on end. Thus, the girl had reached age one responding to 'baby,' 'sweetheart,' and 'gun-totin'-little-animal's-gonna-kill-us-all.'

'Sweetheart' was Kaylee's nickname for her. No one got along with her better than Kaylee, who usually babysat her while her mom was out doing a job. Generally, her baby was sound asleep by the time she came back. This time, Kaylee had put the girl down for a nap just minutes before Zoe had returned, and Zoe knew she would wake up wondering why no one but Inara was on the ship with her. It was high time they headed back.

Unfortunately, Mal had other ideas.

"They just hid the rest of the 'verse? How's that even possible?" He was pacing back and forth. "I guess no one leaves the galaxy 'cause of..." He cleared his throat and looked away from Zoe. "...But how'd they get all the humans out here without them noticing the other planets?"

"Don't forget," Spock added, "Humans and several other species were allies. Yet there is no evidence that relationship ever existed. Stories should have been passed down through the generations. Vulcans, in particular, helped reestablish normalcy on Earth after the so-called World War III."

"Not all that much. They freaked out," interjected Kirk.

"Vulcans do not 'freak out'. Regardless, our help would not be so easily erased from human memory, as well as other noteworthy events."

"We need answers," Mal concluded. "And River's right. The only place capable of keeping a secret that big is Alliance headquarters. So that's where we're headed."

"Why us, Mal?" Zoe asked quietly. "When we get involved in something bigger than us, there are casualties."

It was a direct challenge to his authority; she hadn't even bothered to call him Captain. She still had someone to lose, and this was a cause that she didn't believe in. Mal refused to give up another chance to weaken the Alliance's hold on the 'verse, but the Miranda incident had caused enough uproar on the central planets to force the Alliance to relinquish their control on most of the outer planets, lest more Reavers were created closer to home. Mal just didn't know when to stop.

"This could be it, Zoe. This could destroy them, hiding this from us. What if it's some kinda threat? What's our defense, the Reavers? Or what if they got something that could cure some disease-"

"You're just graspin' at straws. We ain't got no reason to go out there. If you'll pardon me," she said, turning toward the door, "I got a daughter to get back to."

* * *

Lieutenant Nyota Uhura had been waiting for her orders from Kirk for over twenty minutes. Every time she spoke up, someone interrupted her-an obnoxious pig trying to hit on her, one of two deranged captains trying to stir up a fight, or a rather bold first officer. She didn't so much mind the last one, but she gave up anyways. Once she got back to her station, she turned and began speaking with the man she knew had followed her.

"No one's considering what we do if we don't find an alien race willing to help us get home."

"Agreed. Do you have an alternate proposal?" Spock asked.

"Do you know anything about producing red matter?" She immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry. I just-that's the only way I know how to time travel."

"Regardless, our arrival is temporally unpredictable."

She leaned against her station's dashboard. "We all know what'll happen if we don't go back to facilitate communication between New Vulcan and the Federation." She touched his cheek. "Talk to me, Spock. I know this has to be hard for you."

Sulu sighed heavily. "You guys are aware I'm still here, right?" Uhura threw him a dirty look. "I wouldn't have said anything, but there's a ship heading our way."

* * *

"Warp drive. _Warp drive_." Kaylee couldn't get over how strange that sounded. A ship traveling faster than the speed of light. How was it possible? "Can I see it?"

"Well, you can look at the outside, but there's too much radiation for you to actually _see_ the warp drive," Scotty explained. "I can't believe you don't have these in the future. All the work I did on it-gone!"

"You invented these things?" Kaylee asked him, eyes wide with admiration.

"No. I didn't have anything to do with their invention but I manipulate them pretty well. In the last five years I've been able to determine the conditions at the arrival end before the actual arrival-you know, we've had our nose covered in debris enough time for this to be a problem-you have no idea what I'm talking about."

"No, but it sounds amazin'. This whole ship is just amazin'."

"She's alright," Scott said fondly. "This is a five year old model-the new ones are brilliant. But as long as I'm on the Enterprise she'll chug along for a hundred more years."

"That's my plan with Serenity."

"Oh yeah, the escape pod. And here's the medical bay. Severe damage to the port side, unfortunately." Scott hit a panel on the wall and opened the door to reveal McCoy and Simon fixing up the wounded crew. Bones pulled a needle through a man's eyebrow, finishing up the last stitch, and then cut it and turned his medical scanner on Kaylee.

"Another injured?"

"No, she's an engineer, I'm showing her-"

"Just pregnant. She can wait," Bones muttered and stuck a syringe of painkilling fluid into his patient's neck. Then he realized the room had fallen silent aside from the occasional screams of pain. Simon stopped in the middle of setting another man's shoulder and stared at Kaylee. "Oops."

"Pregnant?" asked Simon.

She looked just as stunned. "I...I didn't know."

"FINISH THE SHOULDER!" Simon's patient yelled.

Simon hurriedly did as he asked and then turned back to his girlfriend. Before he could open his mouth, the Enterprise captain's voice boomed through the medical bay. "This is Captain Kirk speaking. We've detected a government ship that, according to...recent intelligence, may be hostile. We will assume this is the case until further notice. All crew assemble to battle stations and prepare to fire if ordered."

"That's us, Bones!" Scotty piped up. "As much as I'd like to watch this lovely soap opera unfold, I think we should leave them alone, huh?" They hustled the patients out, leaving Simon and Kaylee in a very awkward silence.

Simon had so many things running through his mind. He had no way of controlling what would come out first and he knew Kaylee was waiting for him to say something and she looked so surprised he had no idea what what she was thinking and they were supposed to be preparing for battle and why couldn't someone just give him time to find words...

"Am I...the father?"

Kaylee slapped him.

* * *

"That's an Alliance ship," Mal confirmed. "And they probably ain't comin' to welcome you to this century."

"How did they get here so fast if you guys don't have warp?" asked Kirk.

"Mostly the Alliance pulled outta these regions, but they still send around patrols so the idiots that support 'em out on the fringes feel safe. And I guess someone let that ship know that a giant lump of metal appeared out of nowhere."

"Captain," said River. "Zoe is still walking back to Serenity. She's in plain view of that ship."

"Does that matter?" asked Dr. Wallace.

Mal pulled pulled his gun and checked that the safety was off. "We ain't exactly best buds with the Alliance. Top of the wanted list, maybe. We best get ready for a fight."

"Wait," said Kirk. "If we help you fight off this ship-and any other Alliance vessels we happen to encounter-then you help us find the Vulcans. Is that a deal?"

"Captain, I think you know I was comin' anyways. You better make that deal with my first officer, assumin' she don't get shot before we get down there. Can you buzz Jayne and let him know to meet us outside?"

Kirk nodded. "Go. I'll follow you out once I get my crew together. Carol, I need Spock here. I want Sulu to have command of the ship while we're gone. Then I want you to train phasers on the Alliance ship and wait for my signal."

"Aye, Captain."

* * *

Zoe was already engaging the ship on her own, but wasn't doing much damage. She had virtually no cover and while she was a good shot, the ship was too far for her to do any damage. Her main objective was to lead it away from Serenity.

As the ship fired, the sand exploded around her, obscuring her sight. At least the sand dampened the noise of the impact, allowing her to hear Mal alerting her that she had backup. Jayne, reluctantly choosing a bazooka over Vera, stumbled back a few steps as he launched it at the incoming vessel. It hit the hull and left quite a large dent. "Cover me!" yelled Jayne. "Gotta reload!"

Mal jumped in front of him and let lose a magazine of bullets. The ship was close enough to the ground to land, so some of the bullets pinged off the nose but didn't find any soft spots. Jayne, ready for another shot, waited for Mal to finish and then switched positions with him. After his second launch, men came pouring out of the ship. River jumped into action, memorizing their positions, calculating their trajectories, and then firing with deadly accuracy.

Kirk, Spock, and Uhura arrived just in time to witness River's unbelievable attack. They knew better than to ask questions during a battle, and immediately set their sights on the ship itself. Their phasers combined with Jayne's intermittent missiles soon reduced the ship to a smoking pile of scrap metal, and nary a survivor in sight.

"Zoe, Jayne and I'll search the wreck for prisoners. You got cover fire?" Mal asked Kirk. Kirk nodded at his team and they trained their guns on what once had been a ship. River stayed behind, which worried them slightly, but she gave them a sweet smile and aimed at the wreckage as well.

"We shoulda turned and ran when we saw that thing come outta the sky, Mal," Zoe said once they were out of earshot. "We did good laying low for the past few months. Now the Alliance is onto us again. Plus we just destroyed a ship and its crew, and we're harboring...whatever those aliens are."

"Listen to yourself, Zoe. You lost all your fight after Wash died."

They hadn't had this conversation yet, and Zoe wasn't about to start it in front of a very awkward Jayne. "It ain't about fight. It's about reason. We got what we were fighting for. The Alliance's letting go of the outer planets. And now I have a daughter-" She looked away. "Wash didn't even wanna bring a child into this world. He knew running around with you would be too dangerous for a kid."

"So what're you saying? You quittin'? You done?"

"I ain't saying that. I'm saying you're lost without a goal and you'll make up a new one just to keep yourself going, even if it gets the rest of us killed."

Mal stopped in his tracks. "You say that again, Zoe."

"I mean it."

A vein was throbbing in his temple. "You know-you _know_ I do anything for my crew."

"Well then do us a favor and back outta this while you still can."

"Uh, I hate to interrupt this chat, but we got some dead people to dig up," Jayne reminded them.

"Yeah, Jayne, you and I got dead people to dig up. Zoe is going back to the ship-or should I just call it a nursery now? Is that the operation I'm runnin'?" Zoe merely walked away, signaling to the Enterprise crew that she was taking a detour.

"Bound to crack at some point," Jayne commented. "Women."

* * *

"No survivors," Jayne said when they met back with Kirk. "But we got a couple Identicards off some of the guys. Always come in handy."

"Okay. So what's the plan from here?" asked Kirk.

"We need to get to Alliance headquarters on the central planets and find information on Earth-that-was and its allies."

"We will require your ship," said Spock. "We do not have time to repair the Enterprise and then set off, as I imagine more Alliance ships are on their way. But without a warp drive, the journey could take days."

"The Enterprise could meet us there once it's fixed," Mal suggested.

"Don't you want us to come with you?"

"A small team. Leave your engineer here to fix the ship."

"Okay. Spock, I want you, Uhura, Sulu and Wallace with me. Leave Chekov here to help Scotty. We're taking a trip."

"Well, time travelers," said Mal, "Let's get you aboard Serenity."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Firefly or Star Trek.

* * *

"Captain Reynolds," Spock said once the team had boarded Serenity, "Whilst I am unfamiliar with the safety standards of your time, I believe Serenity may not meet most of them. Your spaceship seems to be-"

"Say one more word, alien boy, and I'm gonna break some safety standards myself," warned Kaylee.

Simon leaned closer to him, making the red handprint on his cheek all the more noticeable. "A word of advice. Make sure she's across the 'verse before you badmouth Serenity."

"Thank you."

But his thoughts were clearly shared by his crew mates. Serenity was much smaller, much dirtier, and much more low-tech than the Enterprise. The future of space exploration looked very bleak.

"Well," Mal began, "Quarters aren't so luxurious, and we only got three extra rooms. Some of you gotta share for a few days. And no, Jayne, you don't get to volunteer." The gunman had been eyeing Lieutenant Uhura and had just opened his mouth, only to shut it again, disappointed.

"I vote Sulu bunks with Spock. Because I'm sure not going to," muttered Kirk.

"Well, you all can sort that out yourselves. Kaylee, engine room. River, get us off the ground and headed towards the central planets. Simon, show 'em to the rooms, kitchen, anything they need to know. And don't forget to introduce them to our most illustrious crew member. Let's see what they think of the future then." Which of course made some of the non-Vulcan passengers extremely nervous.

* * *

After several unsuccessful attempts to calm the just-awoken Baby Washburne, Inara had nearly reached her wit's end when Zoe showed up to gather her daughter. The girl quieted almost instantly.

"Thought you're usually good with her, Inara," Zoe said, raising an eyebrow.

"Children are very easy to put to sleep. When they wake up, though, they generally want their mothers. Or their Kaylees. She's not as used to me as she is to either of you," the Companion admitted. "What happened with the crashed ship?"

"It's a long story," Zoe replied in a tone that heavily suggested she didn't want to talk about it. "We got some passengers outta that mess."

Since Zoe wasn't going to talk, Inara intended to demand an explanation from Mal. Before she could find him, however, she found a tour group in her way. Simon was leading five unfamiliar faces towards her-one of which disturbed her a little, as she couldn't read him very well. But they all looked out of place and very surprised to see her.

"This is Inara Serra," Simon explained, "The last crewmember of Serenity."

She smiled. "Welcome aboard. I hope you don't mind, but I'd like a private word with the doctor."

He already knew what she was going to ask, and had summed it up as best he could in advance. "They're time travelers and they came from the past. One of them is an alien. Their ship is really damaged. Mal is taking them to Alliance headquarters to find out what happened to the rest of the alien population. Oh, and Kaylee is pregnant. Did you know about that?"

"Congratulations, Simon. No, I did not. The rest of your story is completely insane." Through the walls, she could hear the ship's engine begin to rumble. Serenity was taking off. "Mal should realize that he has people on this ship who aren't willing to fight his imaginary war anymore."

"That's something you're going to have to talk to him about, although apparently Zoe already has. Anyways, I have to show these guys to the infirmary and then to whatever rooms are left."

"Yes, of course. Would you mind introducing them to me first?" She was intrigued by the one with the poker face and pointed ears.

They returned to the group, and Simon shared the rest of their names and home planets. Then Spock spoke. "Pardon me, but Captain Reynolds mentioned that you were some sort of testament to the state of the future."

"He was being sarcastic, Spock," Kirk warned.

"Be that as it may, I must ask-what did he mean? Are you some sort of remarkably human-like android, or a high-definition hologram?"

"Oh no, nothing like that." She hated when Mal did this. "I'm completely human. Mal may have been referring to my profession as a registered Companion." They didn't understand. "An escort."

The human males suddenly felt very awkward. Spock did not. "A prostitute."

"A Companion. My fellow Companions and I have been trained for many years at the Academy on the central planets, and move in the highest social circles." She realized her present location made this sound a little dubious.

"A glorified prostitute."

For all she could tell, he was being entirely serious.

* * *

"All I'm saying is, when you see a beautiful woman like her, don't call her a prostitute!"

"Was that not her occupation?"

"She didn't seem to think so."

Kirk and Spock had ended up bunking together, much to Kirk's dismay. Sulu had taken the smaller room near the bridge, where he'd gone to learn the controls in case a back-up was needed. Uhura and Wallace were just across the way.

"Regardless, I do not see her function on this ship short of servicing the crew. I believe Captain Reynolds was extending his hospitality on introducing her to us, but I also think it best to decline."

"Of course we're going to decline! But-man, the future's got working girls on every ship?"

"We cannot assume that without more information."

"Still. It's...just...wow."

"I must request that you do not suggest the idea to Starfleet."

Kirk threw a pillow at him. "I wasn't going to!"

* * *

"She's very easy to handle once she's in the air. Take off can get frustrating if it's a particularly cold planet," River explained. "Landings have to be very careful, since a little damage means a long delay and that's unacceptable for our line of work. You're a very boring man."

Sulu looked up from the controls, startled. "Excuse me?"

"I said, you're a very boring man. I can't find anything interesting about you."

"I...I...uh, I fence," Sulu stuttered.

"Still boring."

Mal laughed. "You'll have to excuse our pilot. She's a Reader. Kinda psychic. And she's not afraid to run her mouth all the time."

Sulu was even more overwhelmed. But maybe the psychic ability explained how she knew exactly where each of those Alliance men would be when she shot them. "Well, I'm not here to be interesting...just here to be a pilot..."

"Not a very observant one. You haven't even asked about the dinosaurs." She nodded towards the several plastic toys that lay scattered on the dashboard.

"They weren't important to the handling of the ship!"

"They're very important. You're not allowed to move them when you're reaching for things because that's exactly how Serenity's first pilot left them before he died. Don't touch them."

Sulu gritted his teeth. "You know, I'd rather be boring than irritating."

* * *

"Hope you're enjoying your flight, ladies," Jayne said smoothly as they climbed out of their bunk. "Just to let you know, if you ever get a little cold at night, I'm on the upper level. I'll even letcha see my gun collection." He winked, and the girls exchanged glances.

"So you've got one for the girls and the guys, huh?" said Uhura with a smirk.

"One what?"

"Companion," Wallace clarified.

"What? No...oh no, you've got it all wrong," Jayne chuckled. "Ain't no companionship going on here 'cept for that idiot doctor and Kaylee. Inara's clients are pretty fancy folk. It's too bad." He stopped. "And I ain't no man-whore!"

Uhura and Wallace laughed. "Do us a favor then, Mr. Cobb. Don't tell the guys. Let them figure it out."

* * *

"Dr. Wallace. Are you as thoroughly disappointed by the ship as we are?" Kirk asked her.

"Are you really so disappointed, Captain?" She had a twinkle in her eyes that Kirk wasn't so sure he liked.

"Well, let me think about that...yes. God yes. What disaster happened to make this the epitome of space technology?"

"Oh, don't worry about that, Captain. I doubt this is the best they've got. After all, the ship that attacked us was far more developed than this. But I do have some worrying news for you. This ship was not made for battle. So far from it, in fact, that there are absolutely no weapons on board other than what the crew can carry. If we are attacked again, in space, we will not stand a chance."

Kirk closed his eyes. Maybe once he opened them, he wouldn't be stuck in this nightmarish situation. No such luck. "Any good news?"

"Not for you, no."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She just shrugged at him apologetically. "I'm sorry, Captain, but I'm under orders from Lieutenant Uhura to watch you make a fool of yourself with Inara. So I can't tell you a thing about her."

At least it wasn't serious. "I _will _get it out of you, Carol."

Wallace just walked away, smiling, with the barely noticeable limp that remained after Khan had smashed her knee into pieces. Just seeing it still sent a pang through Kirk's heart. How was he supposed to protect her and the rest of his team on a dilapidated, nutcase-infested ship like this?


End file.
